1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a display device, or a recording apparatus using the display device, and more particularly to a method for displaying the remaining recordable capacity of a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the present specification, electronic cameras will be described by way of example as representing the recording apparatus having the above-stated function.
The electronic cameras include an electronic still camera which is arranged to use a 2-inch floppy disk as a recording medium and to record an image signal in the form of an analog signal on the floppy disk.
The maximum number of pictures recordable per disk by the electronic still camera is about 50. Accordingly, the number of taken pictures is displayed in an integral value.
Meanwhile, a digital camera of the kind arranged to have an image signal outputted from an image sensor recorded in the form of a digital signal on a memory card which is a semiconductor recording medium or on a hard disk or the like has come to be considered of late. Further, an IC adapted for a process of compressing the digital image signal has been developed. Therefore, if the digital image signals are stored on a hard disk or the like in a compressed state, more than 100 pictures can be recorded on a single sheet of hard disk.
If, for example, it becomes possible to record 1000, 10000 or more pictures on one recording medium with ICs for a high rate of compression becoming available and with a higher rate of integration of semiconductors becoming possible, the conventional display method causes an increase in size of a display panel as it would become necessary to arrange display segments for three, four or five digits. If the size of the display panel is to be left unchanged, the size of display characters would become too small for easy visual discernment. Besides, it is another problem that the large number of pictures such as hundreds is not easily perceptible by the photographer.
Further, some of known compression processing methods includes a compression mode in which the amount of data required to record one picture after compression is variable according to the taken image. In a case where an image is to be recorded in such a compression mode, the number of remaining recordable pictures is displayed as an approximate reference.
In such a case, therefore, even if the number of remaining recordable pictures is displayed, for example, as five, the number of actually recordable pictures might be only three depending on the taken images. It is, therefore, difficult for the photographer to accurately know the actual number of remaining recordable pictures.